These Alan Clarke movies have been hit and miss… more miss than hit? But I kinda enjoy them in an instinctual, nostalgic way, anyway — if it’s a BBC movie from 1970, it’s gonna be something, even if it’s gonna be awful.

Nice hairdo.

Oh, this is one of these movies where we’re listening in to everybody’s thoughts?

Another nice hairdo!

Not all these thoughts are…

Heh, OK, that one was a good one.

No, they ditched the internal monologue thing, and now it’s about a mysterious stranger who’s going to join the congregation.

So he’s Satan, I guess? Or possibly Jesus? I DON”T KNOW

THEY”RE SCEPTICAL!

I’m leaning towards Satan. But his constant refrain of wanting “to work with young people” perhaps means that he’s just a pedo?

Uh-oh.

Hang on… are these two characters played by the same actors, but in different wigs?

No, but casting agents in general should be fired. Cast more different-looking people!

OK, now I think he’s Jesus.

OK, now I changed my mind again.

OK, perhaps he’s Jesus?

OK, definitely Jesus.

Oh, now he joined a Catholic church? (They threw him out of the first church for being too creepy.) Or is it just a grand Church of England one? Definitely Satan, then.

Or is this just about how the Church of England accepts insane, icky people into its ranks?

Er… all my guesses were wrong? But too late to edit now!

The Hallelujah Handshake. Alan Clarke. 1970. ⚃

He doesn’t really look sixteen…

Right again!

This is one of those true crime movies.

*gasp*

I think this is sourced from video? (The over-sharpening “echoes” is a dead giveaway.) Perhaps it was even filmed on video? Ah, the booklet says that it was transferred from a digibeta (!) copy of the original 2″ PAL transmission tape. What on earth is digibeta?

Ah, it’s something that was invented in the 90s. I guess the BBC did the PAL tape -> digibeta transfer back then to preserve this? And then the BFI used that copy to make this bluray.

I mean, this doesn’t look bad, but it looks unusual.

This is mostly a courtroom drama? But not very dramatic?

This movie is kinda cheating — we first saw what “really happened”, and then we’re watching the trial, where the coppers are lying their heads off about what we’ve already seen. So there no doubt in the viewers’ minds about anything, so the movie is a bit pointless? I guess we can sit here stewing about coppers lying, and the horrible judge, but…

It’s not very efficient as propaganda either because we’re not given a reason to trust that the filmmakers knew what “really happened”.

Fuck this guy!

OK, the last hour is going to be a voiceover laying out all the reasons why Bentley is innocent? I’m convinced! But… OK, I guess it’s a good thing that the BBC showed a film like this that makes it so clear that cops lie?

But at this remove, at least, this is not thrilling to watch.

It’s confusing that they’re using aged-up pics of the actors as if they’re actual snaps of the people involved.

This movie could have been a book. And it was!

I don’t really know how to throw the die on this one. The final scenes are really powerful, and I guess this could be seen as an important movie in some ways. But… I didn’t really get much out of watching it. So:

To Encourage The Others. Alan Clarke. 1972. ⚂

Oh no. Not another one by Alun Owen — the previous two (?) were absolutely dire.

And this certainly starts off the same unpromising way — a nasty guy badgering some poor woman.

I see what they’re going for, but this is intensely uninteresting.

Heh heh.

OK, now this took a more interesting turn.

Is this going to take a Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf turn?

…

Nope.

OK, this was better than the other Owen pieces, but it’s still not actually good.

Shelter. Alan Clarke. 1967. ⚂